Allotment of nine booths cancelled

It's official now. Finally taking action in the infamous booth allotment scam, the UT administration has ordered cancelling of the allotment of as many as nine booths in Krishna Market, Sector 41.

It's official now. Finally taking action in the infamous booth allotment scam, the UT administration has ordered cancelling of the allotment of as many as nine booths in Krishna Market, Sector 41.

The deputy commissioner Mohammed Shayin has ordered the action on the report submitted by assistant estate officer (AEO) Rahul Gupta and additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Mahavir Kaushik. The AEO and ADC had recommended action in nine cases in which booths were allotted in violation of the terms and conditions.

Criminal cases will also be registered against the nine beneficiaries. However, in the action taken report submitted to the adviser, names of estate officials and politicians have not been mentioned.

According to officials, all the nine persons who were allotted booths had commercial properties in Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar, which was confirmed from the records of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and UT estate office.

The allottees had secured booths on the basis of fake documents and these allotments were made between 2002 and 2007.

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Confirming the development, Mohammed Shayin said orders have been issued for cancellation of nine allotments.
According to sources, there are more cases in which contradictions have been found and the authority is yet to decide on the action to be taken. As per the policy, the person applying for booth should not have commercial property in his name or that of his family members in Tricity and his income should not be more than Rs 5,000 per month. The applicant should also possess a rehri licence.

The scam came to light in March 2008 when Dinesh Kumar Sood lodged a complaint with administration and magisterial probe was marked in 2010 on the directions of UT administrator Shivraj Patil. Then ADC PS Shergill was asked to probe the matter in March 2010, who submitted his reported a year later.

The report pointed out involvement of top politicians and senior officials in the scam. The report also stated that the fraudulent allotment ran into crores of rupees and money was paid to politicians, police officials and officials of the estate office.